ἵστημι and Numbers

Setting something or standing

ἵστημι can mean 'I set / cause to stand' in a transitive use, while other forms mean 'I stand'. Transitive means taking a direct object; intransitive means not taking one. The tense stem often signals this distinction, but context and the compound verb's meaning remain essential.

Present active forms are ἵστημι, ἵστης, ἵστησιν, ἵσταμεν, ἵστατε, ἱστᾶσιν. The rough breathing and ἱ- belong to present reduplication. Future στήσω is normally causative, 'I will set'. The present middle/passive ἵσταμαι may have an intransitive sense in context.

Its first aorist ἔστησα commonly means 'I set', taking an object. Its second aorist ἔστην commonly means 'I stood', with no direct object. 'First' and 'second' here identify formations, but unlike many ordinary aorist pairs they also correlate with a useful lexical contrast.

• ἔστησε τὸν λίθον. — He set up the stone.
• ἔστη ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ. — He stood in the house.

Recognizing the standing stem

The intransitive second-aorist forms are ἔστην, ἔστης, ἔστη, ἔστημεν, ἔστητε, ἔστησαν. Their endings resemble the aorist passive endings, but ἔστην is not normally translated 'I was stood'. Stem meaning matters as well as morphology.

The second-aorist infinitive is στῆναι, and participle στάς, στᾶσα, στάν. The perfect ἕστηκα commonly means 'I stand / am standing', a present state resulting from taking a position. The perfect participle ἑστώς similarly means 'standing'.

Compounds such as ἀνίστημι ('raise / rise') extend the contrast: ἀνέστησε can mean 'he raised', and ἀνέστη 'he rose'. A compound may develop specialized meanings, so learn it as a vocabulary item as well as recognizing the base verb.

• στάς, ὁ μαθητὴς εἶπεν τὸν λόγον. — After standing up, the disciple spoke the message.
• ὁ ἑστὼς μαθητής — the disciple who is standing

Other aorists with the same short pattern

ἔστην belongs to a small group often called root aorists: the endings attach directly to a short verb stem. γινώσκω, 'I know / come to know', has aorist ἔγνων, 'I knew / recognized'. Compare ἔγνως, 'you recognized', ἔγνω, 'he/she recognized', and ἔγνωσαν, 'they recognized'. The endings look like those of aorist passives, but these forms have active meaning: ἔγνων does not mean 'I was known'.

The same family includes aorist infinitive γνῶναι, 'to know / recognize', and participle γνούς, γνοῦσα, γνόν, 'having recognized'. Compare γνώσομαι, 'I will know', from the future lesson. These different stems all belong to γινώσκω; the dictionary's principal parts connect them.

In New Testament reading, the βαίνω family, 'go / step', is especially useful in compounds: ἀναβαίνω, 'go up', has ἀνέβην, 'I went up', and ἀνέβη, 'he/she went up'; καταβαίνω, 'go down', has κατέβην and κατέβη. The participles ἀναβάς and καταβάς mean 'having gone up/down'. Here too, the ending -ην does not make the meaning passive. Notice that a compound's augment comes after its prefix.

• ὁ μαθητὴς ἔγνω τὸν κύριον. — The disciple recognized the Lord.
• ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ἱερόν. — He/she went up to the temple.
• κατέβη ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους. — He/she came down from the mountain.

φημί and the common past form ἔφη

φημί means 'I say / affirm'. Recognize especially φησί(ν), 'he/she says', and φασί(ν), 'they say'. These forms often introduce a speaker's words. As with other -μι verbs, do not expect the regular λέγει ending in φησίν.

The imperfect ἔφη commonly means 'he/she said' within a story. Its form is imperfect even when natural English uses simple 'said'. It may stand inside a quotation or introduce the quotation that follows: ὁ δὲ ἔφη, 'and he said'.

Most present indicative forms of φημί are enclitic: their written accent can change with surrounding words. Learn the common forms and read the quotation as a unit rather than treating every accent variation as a different word.

• φησὶν ὁ μαθητής· πιστεύω. — The disciple says, 'I believe.'
• ὁ δὲ ἔφη· οὐκ οἶδα. — And he said, 'I do not know.'

Counting and ordering

Cardinal numbers answer 'how many?': εἷς (one), δύο (two), τρεῖς/τρία (three), τέσσαρες/τέσσαρα (four), πέντε (five), ἕξ (six), ἑπτά (seven), ὀκτώ (eight), ἐννέα (nine), δέκα (ten). Many higher cardinals do not decline, but the first few do.

δύο normally has the same nominative and accusative for every gender; its common dative is δυσίν. τρεῖς is masculine/feminine and τρία neuter; the genitive is τριῶν and dative τρισίν. Match the number to its noun's gender and case where the forms allow it.

Ordinals answer 'which in order?': πρῶτος (first), δεύτερος (second), τρίτος (third). They decline like ordinary adjectives. In dates and time expressions, Greek may use numbers differently from English, so translate the whole expression rather than forcing each numeral into a single gloss.

• τρεῖς μαθηταὶ ἔχουσι δύο βιβλία. — Three disciples have two books.
• ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ — on the third day

Vocabulary (14)

ἵστημι

I set, cause to stand; some stems: I stand

ἀνίστημι

I raise up; intransitive: I stand up, rise

δύο

two; dative δυσίν

τρεῖς, τρία

three; genitive τριῶν

τέσσαρες, τέσσαρα

four

πέντε

five

ἕξ

six

ἑπτά

seven

ὀκτώ

eight

ἐννέα

nine

δέκα

ten

δώδεκα

twelve

δεύτερος, -α, -ον

second

τρίτος, -η, -ον

third